"A surprise...?" Avelyn repeats the words she was just told with a head tilt, spilling her hair to the side a bit. The resounding sound of a duo of soft claps proceeds with a very eager man rolling up close to the girl in his wheelie chair.
He explains, "Yes a surprise! A surprise I have cookin' up just for you, Ms. Plum." He rolls himself in his chair back to his computer desk to resume typing at his keyboard with Avelyn still as clueless as ever. The teenage girl was seated on a smaller stool with a large tub in front of her, filled with warm water and foaming bubbles from the bath she was giving to a Pokemon. A rather annoyed Nuzleaf is sitting in the middle of it with lowered eyelids and brows, grumbling to himself as Avelyn proceeds to rub a washcloth over him.
She asks, "Well...what for? My birthday already happened long ago this year and I haven't done any exceptional work for you as of late, Professor Palm."
The professor himself swirls his chair around from his desk to face the girl with shoulders shrugged and his hands in the air, "Ms. Plum, why do suggest that there has to be some reason for it? Can I not just be generous to you?" He says with a comical look on his face. Professor Palm himself was comical in a way, being expressive and quirky. The Pokemon researcher was definitely one of the younger ones to come by, being in just his late twenties and a lanky figure. A tall man with pale caucasian skin, his curly hair was poofed out in a thick fro that looked like a bleach blonde cotton ball was growing out from his head. Adventurous light blue eyes through circular glasses stare at the girl with a clear goal of passing off what he said more of an excuse than a reason. The professor himself could've been confused for a beach bum if it wasn't for his title or labcoat. A hawaiian shirt is buttoned together underneath his open white coat, exposing his cargo shorts (sometimes even straight up swim trunks) and weaved flip flops. His long sleeves are rolled up on his arms to accumulate with the warm weather he typically enjoyed, making anyone wonder why he even bothered with the labcoat. Perhaps its just so people take him and his research more literally.
Avelyn fixes her hair and grumbles, "Sir, you always have a reason when doing something for someone else. And generosity isn't one of them. And I keep telling you to just call me Avel-"
"Ghhk. You wound me, Ms. Plum." He interrupts while clutching his chest to fake some pain before returning to his casual nature with a finger wagging, "Buuuut you're not far from the truth. Which makes you all the more perfect research assistant. And no need to be humble, Ms. Plum. All the work you've done here has been exceptional."
The Nuzleaf grunts as he's forced to have water rubbed over his head, "Does giving baths count as 'exceptional research' then?" Avelyn smiles at that and answers, "Sadly to him, yes it does." Avelyn had the natural gift to understand Pokemon, a trademark inheritance than ran through her family line. And with it she's helped Professor Palm in numerous ways with it, even helping him along with other research assistants of his who have the gift to develop a prototype in people and Pokemon being able to communicate with each other. The Professor had many assistances, but they're scattered all across Ultima, with Avelyn being the only one in the small living community known as Little Birch Town.
The Professor himself turns himself around from hearing the Nuzleaf and the girl talking, "Oh? And what's he saying now?"
Avelyn confesses, "He uhhh...is curious if this counts as important research."
A sudden slam on the desk cause her hair to bristle with Prof. Palm smiling excitedly, "Of course it is!" He spins himself in the chair back to his computer and resumes typing, "I'm curious at what temperatures of water Grass-type Pokemon enjoy or benefit from the most. Do they prefer something relaxing and hot like we do like a jacuzzi or shower? Or perhaps something more natural like cold rain or cool river water?"
The Nuzleaf raises a brow with gritting teeth, "What's the point of forcing me to sit through this like some kid? Why the bubbles?! Why not just ask?!?"
Palm pauses in typing and asks as he stares at his screen, "What's he saying now over there?"
"He says he likes warm water the most." Avelyn replies to the professor with the Nuzleaf flashing a look back at her. She whispers to him, "I mean you do, don't you?"
"I don't really care what temperature it is, as long as it ain't frigid or molten hot like any common living thing." He huffs with crossed arms.
Prof. Palm sputters a chorus of keyboard keys being mashed in with an accelerating joy burning him. "Interesting. Interesting! This changes some of my suspicions then. See? Even with these little discoveries, we become a step closer in understanding Pokemon, and they to us. Soon there won't be much difference in us and them at all." He continues to work on his report as Avelyn pulls the Nuzleaf out of the metal round tub to set him on the floor, preparing a small towel to dry him off in. He however quickly snatches it from Avelyn, giving her a glare, and proceeding to dry himself. The girl grins and stands up from her stool, drying her own hands and arms off in a separate towel as Prof. Palm prints his report out and stacks it to an already large tower of papers by his desk that dared to be teetered over by the lightest touch.
"You still haven't told me what this surprise is, Professor." Avelyn asks as Palm's Nuzleaf is busy swaying his hips while shaking the grinding towel behind him.
"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise then!" The researcher says while kicking away from his desk, letting his wheelie chair take far away to the end of the room by a door, stepping out of it. "Now then, you've been my assistant for several years now, not as long as some of my others, but you're already a favorite pick of mine~!"
Avelyn didn't know how to take the flattery and rolls her head, "Where ya goin' with this, Prof.?"
Palm doesn't cease to keep the mystery going and continues, "Plus you've stayed here in Little Birch for most of your life instead of other trainers who venture across the vast biomes of Ultima."
"...By my own decision." Avelyn retorts back with crossed arms. She wasn't that all interested in gym leaders or becoming the Pokemon League Champion like every other trainer out there, more or less because it was a title that meant much to her and her goals were more about learning and befriending Pokemon than forcing them to fight each other.
Palm opens the door, "Now, you've never owned a Pokemon yourself, correct?"
"What are you talking about? You've met Puff, our Hoppip back at home." The girl retorts again.
The professor rolls his eyes, "That's more or less your father's Pokemon, Ms. Plum. I'm talking about a Pokemon you've connected with you and you alone that traveled every step with you."
"Well...I mean I've chatted and befriended plenty of other people's Pokemon, with the occasional wild one but..." She says, rubbing her arm. Now that she thought about it, she's never had any Pokemon to call her own, but that wasn't really ever a problem. She's taken care of so many other people's Pokemon along with helping study others that the professor went out to get or interact with, all of them felt like they were hers in a way.
Prof. Palm shakes his head, "Those aren't what I'm talking about." The Nuzleaf is finished drying himself off, with Palm noticing him. "C'mere Wally!" The Grass-type twitches its sprout leaf atop his head before looking over at the man. Approaching Palm, he's scooped up in the professor's arm and tucked to Palm's side, having his leaf tugged at in a rather ticklish manner. He grunts and sneers before eventually laughing some as the professor pinches and tickles his sensitive leaf. "See. Pokemon and people have a rather unique bond with one another. But a trainer and their Pokemon...that's something completely different. Something even better and far grander, I can't begin on how to explain it to you." Looking to Avelyn, he smiles. "And that's why I'm going to have you find that out for yourself."
He gestures Avelyn inside where the discovers a desk table with a pokeball resting on it. The girl shakes her head with a hand on her head, "Oh don't do this..." She mutters with the professor snickering.
"Go on and take it. That's your new Pokemon. It's your job to help him learn and grow, and from that experience, you'll learn and grow as well! He was a hard one to find, and not many other trainers can get there hands on one, so take it as a good reward for all the hard work you've done for me." He continues to say with Avelyn already at the table, picking the ball up into her hands. She had no clue what was inside it, or if she would even accept such a thing. But without wasting anymore time, she decides to at least see this new Pokemon that'll act as her starter...
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